Description of Historic Place

The Arlington Hotel is a three-storey late Victorian Italianate commercial structure on West Cordova near the intersection of Cambie Street in Vancouver's historic Gastown District.

Heritage Value

The significance of the Arlington Hotel lies equally in its proximity to the bustling commercial core around the corner on West Hastings Street, and to important commercial landmarks such as the Dominion Building, built in 1908-1910, promoted at the time as "an object of pride to every citizen", and described as the most modern office building in the country. This late Victorian structure was typical of scores of residential/commercial buildings built during the early twentieth century, when this part of town was the prime commercial and shopping area. This type of rooming hotel was in high demand to accommodate travelers and businessmen, seasonal resource industry workers, as well as more permanent residents.

It was originally built as professional offices and as accommodation in 1887 and owned by Dr. James Whetham. The design is attributed to N.S. Hoffar. Many of Vancouver’s early commercial buildings were designed by prominent architects like Hoffar. The Arlington Hotel served a combined function of providing commercial space on the ground floor, and lodging and residential space on the upper floors. The evolution of this lodging house continued as the Simcoe Rooming House, and subsequently as the Arlington Rooms from 1913 until the early 1950’s. The adjacent Arlington Billiard Parlor provided recreation for lodgers, and three cafes in close proximity served the culinary needs of many travelers to the area, seasonal workers, and hotel residents alike.

It is interesting to note that this three-storey brick structure, with fourteen foot ceilings, was originally built to a depth of only 66 feet, according to the British tradition of allowing for courtyard space at the rear. This space was built upon in 1909 to house a printing wing of Thomson Brothers, booksellers.

By the early 1960s the Arlington Hotel, like many of its neighbours, had deteriorated badly and was forced to close. The revitalization of Gastown really began here when, in the mid-1960s, property owners in the area conducted a painting campaign, instilling new life into the Arlington and surrounding buildings.

Source: City of Vancouver Heritage Conservation Program

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Arlington Hotel include:
- its functional relationship with neighbouring buildings as part of this historic streetscape
- characteristics of the Victorian Italianate style including: three storey masonry building divided into three bays; narrow central bay of side by side double-hung sash windows providing entry to upper levels, flanked by two bays three windows wide; sheet metal cornice extended by a bracket at top of the four dividing pilasters, third level windows with semi-circular top sash units with stepped moulded brick semi-circular architraves, second level windows with segmental top
- two shopfronts with splayed central entrances on either side of a central entry to upper levels